My New Default

Cabana and I stopped at a pumpkin patch this morning for a photo op. It's supposed to start raining this afternoon, so I thought I'd better do this before the ground got mushy (weather forecast calls for "torrential" rain tomorrow). Cabana wasn't too excited about posing, but she humored me. Good doggy!


I had a VERY rough weekend with Cabana. She just about broke my puppy raising heart! She started having her "episodes" again, which she had when she was about 6 months old but had stopped doing for such a long time. Over the past couple months, Cabana's dog distraction has worsened, which I kept attributing to her being close to going into season--but which I now think was not the reason at all. Her episodes are always triggered by passing dogs, like she's so frustrated at not being able to play with them.

My husband offered to walk Cabana all this next week, but I felt like I needed to "get back on that horse". After having a good cry yesterday, I got some ideas for working on this problem, and after this morning's walk, I think they worked. Cabana always seems "penitent", i.e. very well-behaved, after she's had an episode. But I think my interpreting her as being penitent may be too humanizing. One thing I know for certain is that MY attitude and behavior after she's had an episode are very different from my usual "default" demeanor with her. So, I think I need to ACT from the outset as though she's just had an episode--i.e., I'll tolerate no nonsense, no crap, no episodes.

This morning, armed with my NEW default demeanor, Cabana was much better about passing dogs without going into hysterics. She even sat calmly while a huge jackrabbit bounded across our path! Yay, Cabana! We're still rooting for you! And hopefully still rooting for me, too--after all, I think I'm the one that still has a lot to learn.


One other positive thing is that my hand/arm stopped hurting! I believe the culprit was Cabana's new green head collar. Our old tan-colored one was fraying, so a couple months ago, I asked our puppy group leader for a new one. I selected this green one because the webbing was thicker, and I thought it would hold up better and be a bit more comfortable for Cabana. Well, it might have been SO comfortable that she didn't mind pulling pretty hard with it on. When I think back (and look at my old blog posts), I started having arm problems at just about the time we switched to the green one. For the past week or two, I went back to using the tan one, and voila--no arm pain!!